My Lovely Wife in the Psych Ward by Mark Lukach could fit this.
bhbhbhhh on
Maybe you could think of A Moveable Feast as being about Hemingway’s writer buddies?
Last memoir I read, My Disillusionment in Russia by Emma Goldman, is focused squarely on the people of Russia rather than the author herself.
Peter Hessler’s China memoirs, too, I would imagine are more about the people of China than himself.
sharkinfestedh2o on
Isn’t a memoir writing about your personal experience? Maybe a biography written by a family member or close friend would be more what you are looking for?
Caleb_Trask19 on
Truth & Beauty is about Ann Patchett’s friendship with Lucy Grealy and acts as somewhat a concluding memoir to Grealy’s Autobiography of a Face.
Lulu Miller’s Why Fish Don’t Exist is her memoir intertwined with her admiration and then dismissal of David Starr Jordan.
Jenn Shapland’s My Autobiography of Carson McCullers intertwines her and her subject’s lives.
Maybe Gertrude Stein’s Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, I’ve not read it in decades.
moonstruck008 on
Just Kids kind of fits this
802fakeleg on
The Movement Made Us by David Dennis Jr. His dad was part of the civil rights movement and the freedom summer, and David spent time listening to his stories and turned it into a memoir-style book. There are some interspersed chapters about his reflections on his dad and their relationship as he’s learning about this part of his life.
TheRealFancyB on
Do you mean a biography?
Arms_Akimbo on
“Edie: American Girl” by Jean Stein George Plimpton is a good example. It’s an oral biography of Edie Sedgewick, an “it” girl and Andy Warhol’s muse, as told by her friends and family.
poddoctor on
The only thing close to what you are asking is 41 by George W Bush. It’s about his dad but it’s also his story since he’s in alot of it.
WildEyedBoyFreecloud on
Stuart: A life backwards by Alexander Masters might fit the bill. A backwards biography of the authors unlikely friendship with a chaotic ex homeless drug user and their involvement in a campaign to free unfairly jailed friends. The book is way better than that sounds!
annettek14 on
The Secret Life of Dorothy Soames by Justine Cowan is about her discovery of her mother’s past. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is similar to what you’re looking for but the author Rebecca Skloot is not a family member.
A lot of micro-histories and micro- sciences are written this way, usually about a topic and not just a single person but there are some. For instance the Book of Eels by Patrik Svensson is a science book about Eels mixed with a memoir about Patrik and his father.
15 Comments
Do you mean something like *Hidden Figures* ?
My Lovely Wife in the Psych Ward by Mark Lukach could fit this.
Maybe you could think of A Moveable Feast as being about Hemingway’s writer buddies?
Last memoir I read, My Disillusionment in Russia by Emma Goldman, is focused squarely on the people of Russia rather than the author herself.
Peter Hessler’s China memoirs, too, I would imagine are more about the people of China than himself.
Isn’t a memoir writing about your personal experience? Maybe a biography written by a family member or close friend would be more what you are looking for?
Truth & Beauty is about Ann Patchett’s friendship with Lucy Grealy and acts as somewhat a concluding memoir to Grealy’s Autobiography of a Face.
Lulu Miller’s Why Fish Don’t Exist is her memoir intertwined with her admiration and then dismissal of David Starr Jordan.
Jenn Shapland’s My Autobiography of Carson McCullers intertwines her and her subject’s lives.
Maybe Gertrude Stein’s Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, I’ve not read it in decades.
Just Kids kind of fits this
The Movement Made Us by David Dennis Jr. His dad was part of the civil rights movement and the freedom summer, and David spent time listening to his stories and turned it into a memoir-style book. There are some interspersed chapters about his reflections on his dad and their relationship as he’s learning about this part of his life.
Do you mean a biography?
“Edie: American Girl” by Jean Stein George Plimpton is a good example. It’s an oral biography of Edie Sedgewick, an “it” girl and Andy Warhol’s muse, as told by her friends and family.
The only thing close to what you are asking is 41 by George W Bush. It’s about his dad but it’s also his story since he’s in alot of it.
Stuart: A life backwards by Alexander Masters might fit the bill. A backwards biography of the authors unlikely friendship with a chaotic ex homeless drug user and their involvement in a campaign to free unfairly jailed friends. The book is way better than that sounds!
The Secret Life of Dorothy Soames by Justine Cowan is about her discovery of her mother’s past. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is similar to what you’re looking for but the author Rebecca Skloot is not a family member.
A lot of micro-histories and micro- sciences are written this way, usually about a topic and not just a single person but there are some. For instance the Book of Eels by Patrik Svensson is a science book about Eels mixed with a memoir about Patrik and his father.
LitHub has an article on this topic you might like: https://lithub.com/putting-the-i-in-biography/
*Love, Janis* is a biography of Janis Joplin written by her sister Laura.
The Autobiography of My Mother by Jamaica Kincaid
From Harvey River by Lorna Goodison
Maybe try:
The Family Outing: A Memoir by Jessi Hempel
(It’s about her family not her as an individual)
While You Were Out: An Intimate Family Portrait of Mental Illness in an Era of Silence
by Meg Kissinger (also about her family)